Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Toshiba has announced a new line of Exceria SD cards, which are currently available in sizes up to 64GB – with a 128GB model coming in January 2015. The new cards are UHS-I Speed Class 3 cards, which means they provide a minimum write speed of 30MB/s and are capable of recording 4K video on many current 4K cameras.

The new cards also provide read speeds up to 95MB/s and write speeds up to 60MB/s.

Several sizes are available – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB – and range from $59.99 up to $179.99. Check them out here on Amazon.com.

SanDisk has announced a new line of Extreme PRO microSD cards with transfer speeds up to 95MB/s.

The card has a UHS-I bus and Speed Class 3 rating, which has been the minimum rating for 4K video capture in many recent 4K-capable cameras. The U3 rating means that the cards will deliver a minimum sustained write speed of 30MB/s.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro microSD UHS-I card is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities and ranges in price from $79.99 to $299.99. Watch for them here at B&H Photo.

SanDisk has released new UHS-II SD cards with write speeds up to 250MB/s and read speeds up to 280MB/s. This new line gets its major speed boost from the UHS-II bus interface. Most SD-compatible cameras currently on the market support UHS-I, at best; however, we are just starting to see new cameras with UHS-II support (like the Fuji X-T1).

The new UHS-II bus interface offers the ability to build cards with up to 312MB/s transfer speeds, which is a big jump from the maximum theoretical speeds on the UHS-I interface at 104MB/s. [Read more…]

To go along with the new Panasonic GH4 4K camera that will be announced later tonight / early tomorrow, Kingston is first out of the gate with its official announcement of a new SDHC/SDXC UHS-I Speed Class 3 card in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities. The new Speed Class 3 card guarantees minimun write speeds of 30MB/s.

The minimum write speed of these cards translates to roughly 240Mbps, which fits well within the max on-board data rate of the Panasonic GH4’s 4K capture at 100Mbps for its IPB .mov/.mp4 4K capture and 200Mbps for its ALL-Intra .mov and .mp4 HD capture. Additionally, the new Kingston card provides max speeds of 90MB/s read and 80MB/s write.

Pricing isn’t all that bad either, considering the performance they offer. The 16GB cards run around $40 street and the 64GB cards are around $105 street. Check them out here on Amazon.com.